Today, August 12, 2018, is the United Nations (UN) declared: International Youth Day. This year's declaration, interestingly themed "Safe Spaces for Youth", is fitting amid declining places where youth are safe and secure in the exercise of their lives.

Traditional places of safety, especially in the United States (US) that once included schools, churches and recreation venues, have now become ground zero for deadly gun attacks upon youth and other people. Protest marches and the common streets remain dangerous places for youth accounting for a real decline in safe places for the nation's young people.

Moreover, increase racist rhetoric and agitations which have not been forcefully condemned by the the US executive branch, also translate into a further decline of safe spaces for youth in America.

Across the globe, a seemingly perpetual war in Syria, a continuing conflict in Yemen, the stifling of Palestinian rights in Gaza and denying statehood for the Rohingya people in Myanmar, along with other rights violations and violence, all contribute to the declining safe spaces for the world's youth.

But youth is the vanguard of all change in society and to this end, young people must demand greater governance, accountability and consideration from their aging leaders.

Youth must maintain constant pressure upon the present caretakers with a view to reminding them that they are charged and responsible with protecting all facets of our Planet, including the environment, to ensure a healthy and safe pass over in the future. In other words, old people must protect all systems our youth will inevitably inherit.